Govt oppression of Muhajir political activists continues in Pakistan

The oppression of the Muhajir political activists in Pakistan -- Muslim immigrants who migrated from various regions of India after the Partition of India, has continued in the country as the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) claimed that three of its party leader were killed by the Pakistan government.

MQM-P leader Faisal Sabzwari has said that the three missing persons whose bodies were found in different districts of Sindh province belonged to their party, according to a Canada-based think tank, International Forum for Right and Security.

The state oppression against Muhajirs is being continued since the creation of Pakistan and was beefed up in late 90s. To a rough estimate, the ghoulish military has so far executed 30,000 youth of the Muhajir nation.

He further mentioned that the MQM-P was the only party that was raising the issue of missing persons across the country.

Left organizations dominated student politics across Pakistan, chiefly led by Urdu-speaking (muhajir) students in Karachi and Hyderabad.

In 1978, a group of Urdu-speaking youths decided to form a new student party in the name of Muhajir. The students aimed to use their new platform for remonstration against the unfairness in college admissions and jobs on the basis of quota, instead of merit. They called themselves the 'All Pakistan Mohajir Student Organization' (APMSO). Later in 1984, these students along with some elders held a meeting at Liaquatabad in Karachi, at the residence of Master Ali Haider and formed a political party called the "Mohajir Qaumi Movement" (MQM), which is now known as "The Muttahida Qaumi Movement".

According to IFFRAS, the conflict between the MQM and the Pakistani state goes back to 1992's "Operation Clean-up," a government-sponsored military operation, apparently aimed at cracking down on all "terrorist" and "criminal" elements in Sind, but which successfully became a witch hunt against the MQM.

The MQM's leader Altaf Hussain was forced into exile from Pakistan during this period.

Hussain had earlier strongly condemned the Pakistan People's Party-led feudal Sindh provincial government and warned it to stop oppressing Muhajirs as time is never the same. Each of their oppressive and tyrant actions will be accounted for.

Moreover, there is a history of Sindhi-Muhajir polarisation and the allegations made by Sindhi nationalists that the Urdu-speaking community living in Sindh for the last several decades has not been able to integrate with the local culture, IFFRAS reported.

In addition, the Sindhi-Muhajir conflict over the quota system and the imposition of the Sindhi language along with attempts by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to expand its influence in Karachi by amending the Local Government Act of 2013 alarmed the non-Sindhi population, it added.